Fill the Void

"Fill the Void," a compelling and skillfully made domestic drama, is a rarity, a film that's both set within, and emerges from, a devoutly religious world. Writer-director Rama Burshtein's debut feature takes place in the ultra-Orthodox Haredi community of Tel Aviv, of which she is a member.

The movie is about marriage - the filmmaker is a devotee of Jane Austen - and the dilemmas it poses for 18-year-old Shira (Hadas Yaron), the youngest daughter of a rabbi (Chaim Sharir). In this milieu marriages are not arranged, strictly speaking, but parents suggest matches, to which the prospective couple must agree.

A promising young man has been found for Shira, and as the movie opens she is being taken to a supermarket by her mother (Irit Sheleg) to catch a glimpse of him. This happy time ends abruptly when Shira's sister dies giving birth, leaving a devastated widower, Yochay (Yiftach Klein), with a newborn son.

Worried that Yochay might leave the country to remarry, the mother comes up with the startling solution of pairing him up with Shira. Yochay is a good man, if slightly older than she, and an appealing match, but Shira is taken aback by the notion of marrying her brother-in-law.

The rest of the film, highlighted by some nicely done dialogue scenes between Shira and Yochay, focuses on her internal struggles. A serious rupture with the community isn't in the cards, but Shira is mature beyond her age and willing to stand on her own two feet. As the production notes put it, "Shira will have to choose between her heart's wish and her family duty."

The film does an outstanding job of immersing us in a society that's significantly closed off from the modern world. Much of the movie unfolds inside the characters' homes. Significant moments in the community's life - for instance, the rabbi dispensing cash to a line of supplicants on Purim - are depicted respectfully, and sometimes wittily.

It's a sympathetic portrait of a world that isn't immune to problems but where tradition, family and faith are genuine sources of strength. Women face certain restrictions, to be sure, but play such a key role and exhibit so much vitality that it's hard to see their lives as severely diminished.

There is good soft-focus cinematography from Asaf Sudry, and the major roles are well performed, especially by Yaron, who won the best actress award for her work here at the 2012 Venice Film Festival.